


Blood, Sweat, and Tears

by AKAFishAKA



Series: Linked Relations [8]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, linked universe (fandom)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Bonding, Death Mountain (Legend of Zelda), Dungeon Crawling, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Serious Injuries, Swearing, i am bad at tags i am sorry, i don't think any of the injury descriptions will be that bad but there will be, i think this is a character study
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26886853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKAFishAKA/pseuds/AKAFishAKA
Summary: Hyrule wakes up alone, like he always does. Or, like he always did, before a few months ago. Then he remembers and realizes how much trouble they're in.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Legend (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Sky (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Time (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Wild (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Wind (Linked Universe)
Series: Linked Relations [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1517579
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	Blood, Sweat, and Tears

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dragon_of_Dreams](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragon_of_Dreams/gifts).



> This fic is dedicated to Suri aka Dragon_of_Dreams who is both a wonderful writer (go read her fics do it) and also just the nicest most helpful person!!! ily Suri!!!

He wakes up and knows something is wrong. He can’t place it, but there’s a soft and insistent pulsing in his chest making his body ache and he knows to trust his gut before anything else. He keeps his breath steady and his limbs limp. Faking sleep had come in handy in the past. The monsters see someone limp on the ground and expect the easy kill. That’s how he knew they were still just mindless monsters at their core. The smart ones, the real threats, know that no fight’s ever easy.

He listens for the world to move around him, for the building winds of the monster’s storm. The grounded enemies have footsteps. The flyers move the air around. It’s almost nothing, but he’s learned to feel for those changes with every sense. It’s helped him survive. It’s also made him an extremely light sleeper, not that he sleeps much anyways.

Nothing’s building. This doesn’t make him calmer. If it’s not monsters, what is it?

He opens his eyes. He’s on the ground, in the open, staring at his home’s red sky. That’s a problem. He would never have chosen to sleep here. Caves and trees are much safer, they shield him from the winds the monsters follow. Why is he here? He gets up, checking himself over for cuts. Nothing. Good. The monsters wouldn’t have brought him here and left him. They wouldn’t have brought him anywhere if they found him, they would've just stabbed him through the neck the first chance they got. Unless he managed to get kidnapped by the one monster who’d missed the memo about the whole blood curse.

Actually, as he looks around and sees the red tinted stone, sheer and towering above him, up almost infinitely into the sky, why is he  _ here _ ? This was the center of the storm and after the second time he’d emerged alive he’d vowed not to return here, promised the princesses that he’d stay away. Both swore they could feel danger emanating from the rocks, describing with a clarity his spoken words never quite reached the ache that’s growing so much stronger now in his own body. He knew to listen. He stayed away. He didn’t want to be here. He- he had to leave.

He’s here though, and not of his own accord, so he - he needs a plan. He’d never been great at plans, like Four and Warriors, but he was going to have to make one. He was definitely forgetting something. He had all his things, he confirmed; he didn’t have as many things as Legend or, gosh, Wild, so it wasn’t hard to check. He knew where he was, the monster's largest lair, and where he shouldn’t be, here (at least it wasn’t an active volcano, though, like Time’s or Twilight’s). He had to figure out why he was asleep on rocks (he wasn’t Sky, that wasn’t normal) and why here was where he was. He put his hands on his hips. This was quite the pickle. If Wind was here, he’d be swearing up a storm. Actually, where was-

Panic finally filled Hyrule up to the brim.  _ That’s  _ what was wrong. He didn’t smell Wild’s cooking, there wasn’t any arguing or dramatic storytelling or planning he could hear, nothing was being moved around and packed up, he didn’t see anyone. He’d forgotten he was traveling with other people, but hadn’t, not really. He knew to trust his gut before his head, and his gut always knew if something was wrong.

He should have been with the group when he woke up. He remembers going to sleep with them; they’d had this salty fish thing for dinner right before, courtesy of Wild as always, and Four had to stop Wind’s dramatic retelling about how on his boats they had salted fish constantly so they could actually sleep. It had been nice last night, warm in a sweet way, even with Warriors and Legend quipping back and forth around a humming Sky, and Time and Twilight confirming that tomorrow they were going to visit Twilight’s home village- oh. Hyrule bites his lip. He’s not even in the same Hyrule anymore. This was  _ his  _ home. He hadn’t given them the down low on his world yet, they didn’t know anything about it. He hadn’t even finished planning what he was going to say to them yet. They didn’t know how it always felt like something was coming, how it was always thick in that suffocatingly humid way right before it rained, how he loved it and did whatever he could for it even if he was alone. 

He’s alone now, but he’s not worried about that, he’s worried about if the others are. They must have shifted worlds in their sleep, though the people on watch, Time, Wild, and Legend, hadn’t made any type of fuss, so if everything had gone normally they should have been here with him. Hyrule scans the ledge he’s on and realizes how small it is and how close to the edge he stands. He takes a step back, though if he was that close on such a small platform then maybe the others were above or below him.

He looks down. The meadow below the entrance is clear, bushes and brush trampled down by constant movement. Right in the middle of what’s left of the green, as if to taunt him, lies the dulling red of blood. It’s leading, clearly, to the entrance to the caves he stands over.

As Hyrule shifts a foot back in shock, dust jumps up to float gently around. It’s bone dry, still, like it had been when he left, and Hyrule knows deeply in his chest that the monsters, the true storm his home constantly sits under, are all here waiting for their chance to strike. When Ganon was alive, this storm had been the strongest, threats around every corner, lightning waiting to strike at the slightest chance. He’d observed it, killed Ganon, claimed the entire Triforce, and learned how to watch for its formation and patterns. He now can always see it coming, feel the vibrations of the thundering monsters charge, watch the clouds swirl and plots darken. The storm is dangerous, and he’s slipped around it, through its weakest points, and watched from afar as at the center lightning struck down, yearning for his demise, as he shields the world from the rains because no one else wants to even chance getting wet.

This time it’s clever. The sun may be out, shining clear in the pink sky, but the air is as hot and thick as the soil under his feet, tasting of ozone and potential, and he can feel it in his gut. This is a trap meant for him, a not so cleverly disguised passage into the epicenter of the storms he’s promised to skirt around. The question is, does he fall for it?

He shouldn’t. It would be stupid. He’s not stupid. He can read and write better than most in his world. He’s not fast like the rest of the group, but he never had to be fast, he just had to understand enough to read the old scrolls no one else bothers glancing at. He even owns a whole book, one of the only ones he’s ever seen, a faded red tome, that he reads when he has free time. He’s made it though it once and is close to the end of his second read through, and has probably read more that 99% of Hyrule. If he was stupid, he wouldn’t have been able to do that. If he was stupid, he wouldn’t have survived to nineteen while being chased by very desperate and ruthless demons. If he was stupid, he’d have walked into a trap and died years ago. 

By that logic he should leave. Go hide in a cave or something. There's a kingdom depending on his survival. Actually, the Princesses probably are wondering where he is, he was supposed to meet with them the day he left. The others would love them. He’ll have to take them to meet them when he gets them out of this cave-

Hyrule blinks, shakes his head, checks his surroundings again. It’s still clear. All the monsters are probably waiting for him inside. He shouldn’t go in there, he thinks, as he rechecks all his belongings. It would be really stupid to go walk into the heart of the enemies’s army (oh, he’s got a magic potion, neat). It would be stupid to give all his money to old men who live in caves (he readjusts his armor), or to risk starvation to save a kidnapped child (he's got full magic), or to go looking for the Triforces of Wisdom and Courage because you were asked nicely to (thanks to Four, his sword’s sharper than it’s been in a while).

Hyrule shakes himself off, checks himself for wounds one final time, and sets his shoulders. Maybe he is stupid, because he knows in his gut that he couldn't have ever walked away right now.

There’s something different this time, though. He’s been scared a lot, but this isn’t the same fear. It’s not the fear of knowing there’s eyes watching him, of pressing his back against the wall to prevent surprises, of conserving resources because he doesn’t know when he’ll get the chance to find more. There’s something eating away at his heart now, causing his hands to shake and his breathing to fall arrhythmic. Why is this so much more scary? He’s walked into this heart before, and come out soaking and dripping and shining with a power as bright as the lightning, victorious. His gut says something’s horribly different. For the first time, Hyrule ignores it.

He jumps down. He lands in a practiced, quiet ‘thump’ that still echoes around the clearing. He’s gotten more used to the constant noises that littered the other’s forests, animals that were free to chitter and cheep and wander. At first the new noises had been scary, like something was sneaking up behind him constantly, but after a while he'd realized it was more like small guardians watching for dangers. Hyrule found he liked it, actually. It was comforting. The silence now screamed to watch his back lest it get stabbed, screamed of danger. Which he supposed was true. For all he loved his home, he would put dangerous in the first three words to describe it.

Through the silence Hyrule listens. Nothing. All clear to enter. So he does.

The first thing Hyrule notices is that the old man who had originally lived here had successfully moved out to a much safer part of the country. This is good. He wasn’t sure why that man was living there in the first place.

The second thing Hyrule notices is that the next door leads outside. He blinks. That was new. But as he looks around, it wasn’t new, really. It was… it was… oh, that’s what they’re doing.

Contrary to the popular belief of the group, Hyrule thought he had an excellent sense of direction. It’s just that the others gained that sense through a heavy use of maps and writing he could never really get the hang of. His world never wasted paper on maps (and no one really traveled other than himself), so he’d had to make his own.

Hyrule knows his world like the back of his hand. He’s wandered into every nook, every grotto, and committed it to his memory. He’d found hidden capsules, secret dolls, fake walls, everything he owned in hidden crevices and caverns. Sure, in the other worlds he’d get lost, because he hadn’t learned them yet. Wandering is step one of going.

He’d wandered Death Mountain multiple times. The first time he’d gone under, into a carefully constructed lair housing Ganon himself. The second time he’d surveyed the open parts of the mountain, dodging enemies in search of something of importance, which he’d eventually found in the form of a hammer and a magic capsule. Now, his third time, it seemed the monsters had done some creative combining, mixing both places into one new, improved Mountain of Death. A new challenge for his mental map to ponder, another challenge for him to overcome. If they thought they could get him lost in his homeland, they might actually be more stupid than he thought.

Hyrule thinks through the layouts of the alternate dungeons. It’s going to be hard for him to cover all the twists and turns both places have with any speed, and he doesn’t know what state the others are in, or where they are. He doesn’t want to get to one of them too late. Already he’s got a choice on whether to go left or right. The outside forms a loop, he can get from one side to the other, but...

He turns right. It’s the right way to go, his gut tells him. It’s… lighter? Warmer? He’s not sure. It’s a different gut reaction than the one that tells him that there could be something hidden, and practically opposite the one shaking in its boots still (he hopes it stops soon, he needs to focus). Whatever it is, it feels right.

The first room is a dead giveaway of where he is despite the missing lava (that lava had always been magical, he’d realized upon his first revisit, a show of Ganon’s power). He’s close to the start, which makes sense. He can see light through the door to his right but decides to glance into the other room just in case.

Hyrule almost trips over a pile of discarded bones (maybe a stalfos?) when he sees what’s in the next room. Wind stands hunched over in the corner, holding two axes loose in his hands. Blood’s covering the right side of his face, dripping down over his eye. A large daira towers over him, growling, the corpse of another daira that Wind must have just killed lying between the two. Wind’s chest heaves from exhaustion, but he stands light on his feet, or at least Hyrule thinks so, because the floor is covered in axes. Some are stained with blood. It’d be unnerving if he hadn’t seen it all before many times.

Wind makes eye contact with him, blinking hard and shaking his head almost imperceivably. “Oh fuck, Hyrule, you’re-”

The diara lets out it’s horrendous screech and charges forward. Wind yelps, flipping backwards, as Hyrule rushes forward. He steps over the bones with a practiced ease, sending axes skittering across the floor. The daira trips over the body splayed across the cold stone, giving Wind good clearance to finish his backflip.

The sailor needed that time. He lands on the flat of an abandoned ax, slipping backwards and slamming his left hand into the ground to catch himself (Hyrule lets out a breath as he misses an ax by an inch at the most). Wind manages to pull himself up into a crouch, poised on his tiptoes to dodge the next charge, but his breathing’s growing heavier by the second. His eyes are on the daira’s feet, but the daira stays still. Hyrule’s eyes widen.

“Don’t move!” He calls, words echoing in the cavernous room, as he scrambles over bones and axes, across the already uneven floor. The daira winds up in the motion Hyrule knows so well, and he dives to get in front of Wind. 

He’s done it so many times now that the words he needs practically fall out of his mouth. The reflect spell flows like the water in the brooks Wild showed him over his shield, coating it in a layer of clear, cool power that sparkles in the dim torchlight. The feel of the shield doesn’t change, his hand stays in the same spot, but when the ax hits the flat of his shield blade first, the sharp of the ax bounces back at the daira.

He falls, shifting to the side to land with his shield facing the daira to stop the follow up attack, but when he looks up he sees Wind dashing towards the daira, who is trying to pull the ax out of its side. That attempt ends when Wind jumps up and buries his two axes in the monster’s neck, landing neatly on his feet in a gap in the axes.

There's a moment where no one moves. The moment lasts as long as the fight did: only 6 seconds, really. Then Wind lets out a large breath before starting and turning around. “Hyrule, I’m so fucking glad you’re here-”

Hyrule pushes himself up and rushes over to Wind. “Oh no, Wind, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, ‘Rule, what about you?”

Hyrule hardly hears Wind as he gives him a hearty once over, checking for any cuts hidden by the teen’s loose clothing. “You’re bleeding, do you need bandages-”

“I- hey- by fucking Hylia, Hyrule, you’re acting like Ri,” Wind complains, pushing Hyrule away, “stop fawning over me like a gull over food.”

“But you’re bleeding!”

“Yeah, that guy just grazed me when… oh  _ yeah _ !” Wind suddenly got intense. Hyrule takes a half step back. “What overpowered shit is your shield made of?”

“Um… it’s my magic shield?”

Wind squints at it, wiping blood away from his eye. “Literally or just in title?

Hyrule had never thought about that. “Um… I think it’s a plain shield.”

“So normal shield material.”

“I suppose?”

Wind straightens up, fixing Hyrule with a glare. “You’re lying.”  
“I- what?”

“I grabbed  _ that  _ shield,” Wind points a thumb at a discarded shield bisected by a familiar looking axe, ”from that odd skeleton and the ax that bounced off your shield like water off a duck’s back broke my damn shield so bad Four would kill me if he saw it. Either your shield is special or you’re keeping an even bigger secret.”

Oh, Hyrule doesn’t like this conversation. “Wait, why’d you have to use another shield, where’s yours?”

“I’ll tell you after you tell me what’s going on.”

“But- you’re bleeding-”

“Oh, the guy just grazed me, this is already healing up, it just sucks placement wise.”

“Let me heal it so you can see.”

“Don’t baby me.”

“I’m not, I’m… umm…” What was he feeling? “Um, Wind, I-”

“Hyrule, just stop trying to dodge my question and answer me, dammit!”

Hyrule freezes. Oh no. This isn’t- this can’t be a conversation he’s having. Advertising his magic isn’t the way he’s survived the last three years of his life. The opposite is true, actually, the only people who he ever told were the old men who called him on it before he could deny. Dropping knowledge in the wrong hands gets him hurt badly, minimum. And he knows he trusts Wind. He does. At least in his head he does? He… he does, for sure. Telling people about his magic puts a target on him, but not telling Wind in this scenario? It could get him hurt more. Or- Hyrule's heart contracts- will telling Wind put a target on his back too? What if they also all are cursed?  _ Gosh _ , something in him (his internal compass, maybe?) has been shaking wildly this whole time with… apprehension? It’s not fear, is it? He can’t afford to be scared right now, he has to keep his head and his gut sense going or his- they-

“Listen, in my book, friends don’t keep secrets. It’s rude.”

Hyrule’s thoughts are cut off. “Huh?”

“Why do you think I bother to tell you guys all the stories I do? Why do you think I don’t bother to hide my opinions when you do something?”

Looking back on it, Hyrule really didn’t know why Wind did that. “...I never really knew.”

“It's because I respect you guys. So you get to know what I really think. I’d only ever keep a secret if I thought saying it would severely hurt someone, and that hasn’t happened yet. If I didn’t trust you all I’d be a completely different person.”

Hyrule doesn’t respond immediately. He’d just kinda thought Wind’s world was like that, that he had the privilege to be open, blunt even with others. He’d never gotten the chance to do that. It was too risky to tell you secrets when you were being hunted; the aches almost got him once and he’d decided not to risk that again.

But he enjoyed Wind’s tales so much. It’s wonderful to hear him talk with so much passion about things he was proud of. And with his explanation his outspokenness meant even more. It was like when he found something hidden in a small cavern in the dungeons, like a pretty rock or a small plant, and he got to know that just he and it shared this experience and knew of how beautiful it was. Hyrule… liked being trusted. It was probably the same the other way, huh. __

“Well that’s my two shits on the matter,” Wind breaks the silence with a grin. “Now what the fuck’s up with your shield?”

Hyrule takes a deep breath in. Wind trusts him. He has to do this. “I can do magic.”  
Wind blinks. “That’s normal.”

“Without a stick.”

“What the fuck.”

Hyrule snorts. “Wind, I-”

“Hyrule, that’s absolutely insane!” Wind practically jumps from the force he throws his arms into the air with. “I’ve only met a few people that can do that! And they were, like, big bosses. Like super strong shit.”

“Well, people where I'm from don’t really like it.” Hyrule stores that sentence away as a candidate for understatement of the year.

“Ew.” Wind grimaces. “When we get out of this mess remind me to fuck ‘em up for you.”

“What-”

“So do you have any idea where everyone else is or what’s going on?”

“Oh I have no fucking clue. I woke up slung over the shoulder of bone guy over there-”

“Parutamu.”

“Yeah, skellyman, and no one else was here, and they were trying to put me in jail, but I was like ‘I’ve been through all that rigamarole already, I’m not doing it again,” Wind shakes his head vigorously, “so I stole the shield and used it to knock the skeleton’s head sideways, then grabbed some of the axes those guys threw. I’m used to fighting with stolen weapons. I steal all the time.”

Hyrule nods agreeingly, understandingly. Sometimes you just didn’t have a choice.

“You caught me at the end of that fight,” Wind continues, “which, thank you, I kept losing my footing on all the axes. They had so many. Those guys are rough.”

“They’re daira. Those were the red ones too, they have an endless amount of axes. I’m surprised it stopped throwing them.”

“You fight those on the regular?”

“Mm hmm, though they’re normally outside of dungeons.” That was a bit worrying to Hyrule, actually. Why were those guys in here in the first place?

“I’m sorry, those are the outside enemies?”

“Oh, yeah. They kidnapped a child once.”

“Oh. So they’re those types of sons of bitches.” Wind’s sudden change in demeanor surprises Hyrule. “That’s what they’ve done here.”

It's not a question, but Hyrule answers. “I think so.”

“Then we gotta fucking go get them.”

“What? No, you’re leaving, I’m getting you out of here-”

“No you fucking are not! I am not leaving them in here-”

“You don’t know this place, it’s the most dangerous place I’ve ever been.”

“Well I’ve been through some  _ shit  _ too, and I’m just as strong as you are!”

“It’s not your strength, I’d be doing this no matter who you were.”

“Well I appreciate that you care, but I am not leaving until all of our friends are confirmed to be safe. I’m not letting anyone else be kidnapped.”

Oh, crud, Hyrule realizes, Wind is tearing up. “I, Wind, um.” He doesn’t know what to say, he hadn’t expected this type of response.

Wind shakes just enough for it to be noticeable and concerning. “My sister got kidnapped and my best friend got kidnapped twice and now my new friends are kidnapped and I- I can’t let it happen again! I won’t leave them here, Hyrule, and you can’t make me!”

“Wind, I promise, we’re not leaving any of them, I- I couldn’t do that. I promise. I just know how dangerous it is here-”

“And that’s why we have to go together!”

“WInd, hear me out here. You said you’re used to fighting improvised, right?”

Wind pauses in the middle of a shaky breath in, then closes his mouth. “Mm-hmm.”

“Who else is?” Wind opens his mouth, then closes it. “Because I’m thinking the answer’s Wild. Legend’s probably next best with his wide arsenal. But the others? Unarmed? With monsters like the daira everywhere?”

Wind’s worry intensifies, his grip on the axes tightening. “And I was being carried in...”

“I’m still not sure why they’ve bothered to kidnap you all,” Hyrule continues. He’s technically not lying, he’s not completely sure this is a trap (it’s a trap, his gut says, and he pushes it down further). “It’s not what I’m used to my monster doing, they’re more…”

Wind doesn’t need that sentence to be finished. His expression had been hardened from the moment the word kidnapped was uttered. “More reason for me to come with you. We need to get to them as fast as possible.”

“But if they’re hurt, they need to be taken out and protected. I can’t just leave them alone outside. This is my world, I know it like the back of my hand. Leaving an injured person outside? Foolish at best, murderous at worst.”

Wind’s gasp is mostly concealed as he considers this new information. “It’s like leaving someone out at sea, huh. You have to be ready for it.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good way to put it.”

Wind thinks for just a moment. “...Has it always been like this? For you here?”

“...Yeah, Wind. It has.”

“It’s hard, huh.”

“...It can be, but I’m here now. So it couldn’t be that bad.”

Wind gives him a look. Hyrule doesn’t know what it means. It isn’t a beaming smile, or a pout, or teeming with sadness. It is somewhere between those, something much gentler and somehow a bit melancholic. Maybe if he’d grown up around more people he’d have been able to read it. As it is, he's just going to have to keep going.

“So, I think it’d be better if you went outside and protected the others once I find them. There’s a safe cave nearby I can show you.”

Wind blinks, pauses, shakes his head. “Compromise: I come with you until we find someone we need to get out safely. Then I’ll stay with them and protect them.”

Hyrule considers. On one hand, it was dangerous to be exploring here unarmed. On the other, it could be more dangerous to leave him alone, unarmed, outside. Also, having Wind here was nice. He didn’t really want to be alone now, anyways.

“Wind, that’s a great idea.”

Wind perks up, a small smile coming through on his face. “Thanks. Hyrule?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re pretty great.” 

Hyrule’s breath sticks in his throat as Wind spins around and makes his way back out of the dead end room. Pretty great? His footsteps fall without him thinking as he follows Wind. He’s never been called pretty great before. It makes him feel… warm. That’s it. Less shaky-scared or whatever that feeling was and more warm.

Wind takes a step forward to look around the corners. Hyrule states at his back. Could he…? He’s tried and done it with healing. He almost certainly could.

Hyrule reaches out and lays his hand gently on Wind’s shoulder. With a murmur of practiced silence, he lays his second spell as a cloak around Wind, wrapping him gently in a simmering red glitter. It shines with the knowledge that it will help shield Wind until he gets out of here. Because he’s getting out of this as unscathed as Hyrule can manage. They all are.

“‘Rule, you good?” Wind questions, turning at Hyrule’s touch.

“I’m fine, Wind,” he replied, because he had his things and he had his magic and he had Wind here and that was about as fine as he’d ever been, “we just need to go right.”

“Ok! Let’s go save the rest of them then.”

Hyrule shakes his head and sets his shoulders. “Let’s.”

**Author's Note:**

> so this idea's been in the works for a bit now! I have many plans : ). Thanks Seeking7 for beta-ing your comments helped a ton! <3
> 
> just FYI, I have no clue when this will be updated next, I'm currently in school so nothing is set in stone


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